opposed, but Garfield advised it, and his arguments were so convincing
that Rosecrans determined to seek an engagement. General Garfield wrote
out all the orders of that fateful day, September 19, excepting one, and
that one was the blunder that lost the day. Garfield volunteered to take
the news of the defeat on the right to General George H. Thomas, who
held the left of the line. It was a bold ride, under constant fire, but
he reached Thomas and gave the information that saved the Army of the
Cumberland. For this action he was made a major-general September 19,
1863--promoted for gallantry on a field that was lost. Yielded to Mr.
Lincoln's urgent request and on December 5, 1863, resigned his commission
and hastened to Washington to sit in Congress, to which he had been
chosen fifteen months before. Was offered a division in the Army of the
Cumberland by General Thomas, but yielded to the representations of the
President and Secretary Stanton that he would be more useful in the
House of Representatives. Was placed on the Committee on Military
Affairs, then the most important in Congress. In the Thirty-ninth
Congress (1865) was changed, at his own request, from the Committee on
Military Affairs to the Committee on Ways and Means. In the Fortieth
Congress (1867) was restored to the Committee on Military Affairs and
made its chairman. In the Forty-first Congress the Committee on Banking
and Currency was created and he was made its chairman. Served also on
the Select Committee on the Census and on the Committee on Rules. Was
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in the Forty-second and
Forty-third Congresses. In the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and
Forty-sixth Congresses (the House being Democratic) was assigned to the
Committee on Ways and Means. In 1876, at President Grant's request, went
to New Orleans in company with Senators Sherman and Matthews and other
Republicans, to watch the counting of the Louisiana vote. He made a
special study of the West Feliciana Parish case, and embodied his views
in a brief but significant report. In January, 1877, made two notable